MSN Flexes Its Muscle - Yes, It Has Muscle - And Makes A Web Video A Hit

Who says the portals don't matter? Or that YouTube is the only place a video can grab eyeballs?

On Wednesday of last week, the political parody "Some Campaignin'" got 835,000 views on MSN's homepage. That was more views than the week's top video on YouTube, "Homemade Porn," which got 824,000 views the same day, according to TubeMogul.

By Friday, with combined distribution on MSN, YouTube (400,000) and MySpaceTV (300,000), JibJab's "Some Campaignin'" racked up 1.7 million views and was outpacing "Homemade Porn," (1.3 million) YouTube's top video of the week.

What does it mean? Without MSN promotion, a funny faux porn video easily trumps a funny political video. With MSN promotion, politics wins, for at least one week. ("Homemade Porn," uploaded to YouTube on July 14 had two more days to accumulate views. "Some Campaignin'" was released July 16.)

It's a reminder of the distribution power of even a creaky old portal like MSN, particularly the featured upper left box, where the video spent all day Wednesday. (See Yahoo's use of its own homepage in its proxy fight against Carl Icahn.) On the other hand, "Homemade Porn," a sketch from the Detroit comedy troop These People, had no promotion at all, and got almost as many views as "Some Campaignin'" on YouTube alone.

Big difference: MSN had a reason to push "Some Campaignin,'" which ran with some bigtime advertising from Gillette and and Bank of America. "Homemade Porn?" Ad-free.